Hunters of Earth

This is a bit of a different one. The first story in the ‘Destiny of the Doctor’ line of stories.

The Doctor and Susan have settled in London, 1963, but we’re still a few months away from the start of the real adventures. We see how Susan is settling in at school, while the Doctor is working on repairing the Tardis. Life seems good for a while. However, when people suddenly start getting aggressive, things may not be what they seem….

For me, the best part of this story is the start. Simply because it has the most character focus. We see Susan struggling to fit in with other classmates, yet slowly finding her footing. Trying to fit in with a society she hasn’t been part of, but definitely wants to be. She gets on well with her classmate Cedric in particular, as he takes her to the local café and introduces her to other people.

And sadly, while this is the best part of the story, it is also where the flaws start to show up.

When the owner of the café changes the radio station, the teenagers suddenly become hostile towards Susan. Wanting to push her away and even kill her for being “different”. With that exact setup, I think you might have already found the cause of the different behavior: The radio playing in the background. It’s a very predictable threat, but like the last story, it will take Susan a while to catch on.

The difference with Quinnis is that this story has more worldbuilding around it’s central plot. London 1963 has the benefit of being more familiar to ourselves than a completely alien world, after all. Although I do think the time and place could still have been presented better.

As you might’ve guessed from the radio, there’s quite a focus on music within this story. Yet at the same time there’s only really a focus on one particular kind of music: the Beatles. They just keep chucking that particular band at you. I wish they had cast a bit of a wider net or gone a bit deeper.

I mean, I get it, we are with a cast of teenagers in the sixties and they were the most influential band of their time. Beatlemania and all that. But maybe they could’ve played with that idea a little more. The music from the Beatles helped to bridge the gap between young and old people. It made people feel included. Yet now, within this story, it is made to have the opposite effect. That’s a blatant contradiction, yet the story never addresses it. There’s some unexplored depth there, which would have added more layers to the story.

Other than that, there really isn’t much that this story has going for it. The world is pretty bland altogether, and the story is, once again, painfully obvious. I wish there was just more of something. Anything that keeps you hooked.

Like, for example, the villain of the story. One of Susan’s teachers turns out to be a secret agent, sent to investigate mysterious phenomena. It has a real sense of mystery at first, but he turns out to just be “the human with a gun”. You probably get what I mean with that stereotype, but imagine what could’ve been with the Doctor against a spy!

The same potential goes for Cedric, who turns out to be the guy’s nephew! While I’m glad Susan is immediately done with his betrayal, I think more could’ve been here. This story has the benefit of knowing how Susan’s journey ends. Why not treat him more like a potential David? One who couldn’t keep up? After the reveal, he is shoved aside so hard that any sense of nuance of deeper emotion between them is lost. Which, for me, is the final nail in the coffin for this story.

Hunters of earth is, in a word, basic. Its storytelling is competent, but not interesting. The best thing it has going for it, is the early scenes with Susan. Trying to find her footing amongst a new group of peers. But that is quickly shoved aside for a bland, predictable plot that never really surprises, intrigues or entertains. It’s just fine. Nothing more.